Thompson E761 — Life token

Life token. (Cf. E760.) Object (animal, person) has mystic connection with the life of a person, so that changes in the life-token indicate changes in the person, usually disaster or death. *Type 303; **Polivka The Life Tokens in Folk-Tales, Custom, and Belief (Národopisny Vestnik Ceskoslovansky XII [Prague, 1917]); *Chauvin V 87 No. 27 n. 1, V 295, VII 98 No. 375 n. 1; Penzer I 130, III 272 n. 1, X 210; Clouston Tales I 169ff.; Jacobs' list s.v. "Life index"; *BP I 545, II 392; *Hartland Legend of Perseus II 1—54; **Nelson The Life-Index, a Hindu Fiction Motif (Studies in Honor of Maurice Bloomfield) 211ff.—Irish myth: Cross; Breton: Sébillot Incidents s.v. "danger"; India: *Thompson-Balys; Oceanic (New Hebrides, Torres Straits, New Guinea, Indonesia): Dixon 133 n. 5; N. A. Indian: *Thompson Tales 317 n. 149, *Hultkrantz 338—340, (California): Gayton and Newman 69; S. A. Indian (Quiché): Alexander Lat. Am. 173; Africa (Kaffir): Theal 81, (Basuto): Jacottet 212, 218 Nos. 31, 32.